Greek finance ministry sources on Tuesday rejected main opposition party allegations that a prolonged negotiations process with creditors further burdened the country’s public debt.

“For those alleging that the real economy was hurt by the negotiations, we encourage them to look at the statistics in unemployment which fell to 24.9% in the first quarter of 2016, from 27.3% in the same period in 2014,” the sources said.

The sources noted that the cost of 86 billion euros of the bailout loan agreed with the creditors in August 2015 was distributed as follows:

-54 billion euros will be used for the refinancing of existing debt
-25 billion euros were earmarked for the recapitalization of banks, of which only 5.0 billion were finally used
-7.0 billion euros will be used to repay the state’s overdue debt to the private sector.
“The Greek public debt was 324 billion euros in December 31, 2014 and eased to 321 billion a year later,” the sources said.(Source ANA-MPA)